The construction of power units using China's self-developed Hualong One technology at East China's Zhejiang San'ao Nuclear Power Station started on December 31, 2020. Photo: China General Nuclear Power Group

The construction of power units officially started on Thursday, the last day of 2020, at East China's Zhejiang San'ao Nuclear Power Station, using China's self-developed Hualong One technology.

The nuclear power project is the first of its kind in the Yangtze River Delta with Hualong One third-generation nuclear technology, and is the third nuclear power station that started construction in Zhejiang Province.

The San'ao project plans to construct six units with Hualong One technology, and absorbed private capital for the first time in China, according to a news release of China General Nuclear Power Group, a developer of Hualong One technology.

The total installed capacity of the project will reach 7.2 million kilowatts, attracting an investment of 120 billion yuan ($18.6 billion). The annual generating capacity of the first phase of the project will reach 17.5 billion kilowatt-hours, with a planned construction period of 60 months, thepaper.cn reported on Monday.

With a GDP of 6.24 trillion yuan ($903.9 billion) in 2019, Zhejiang is an energy intensive province, but at the same time short in energy resources. San'ao nuclear power project is of great significance to its optimization of energy structure and enhancement of energy independent security capacity, media reported.